Door holder



F. I 3. GARRlsN.

DOOR HOLDER March/ 24, 1942.

Filed Jan. 2, 1941 2` sheets-'sheet 1 .nllllf Patented Mar. 24, 1942 DOOR HOLDER ForrestC. Garrison,.Highland Park, Ill., assignor to. The Oscar C. Rixson Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application January. 2, 1941, Serial No. 372,860

Claims. (Cl. 2921-274) Door holders, of the classto which this invention relates, hold doors open, when manually stopped, at different positions without interfering with free swing of the door undernormal use.

Such a door control, as described by Voight et al., Patent No. 958,477, issued May 12, 1910, is combined with a door closing device. The closing device is of the type having a door operating arm connected at one end to a spring actuated door closing spindle. the door arm rotates the spindle against closing pressure from the spring. To hold the door open, when stopped, at predetermined. points upon the opening movement, a pawl, resiliently mounted on the door arm, coacts with lugs circularly grouped on a xed element surrounding the spindle. The lugs are spaced apart, each lug being shaped to receive the pawl. Otherwise by idly dragging over theV lugs, thepawl is ineffective both during opening and closing movements of the door.

At any position of the door at which the pawl is in holding position, freeing the door to permit closing involves an initial further opening of the door suicient to draw the pawl from engagement with a lug, or the pawl may be forced from the lug by supplementing the action of the closing device suiciently to overcome yielding resistance from the spring mounting of the pawl.

To prevent the pawl from falling ineffectively between the lugs, the door movement must be halted at invariable positions relative to the lugs.

Gauging the precise position at which the door movement should be stopped to cause engagement of the pawl with a lug is an uncertain process, even to one familiar with the lug positions. The diiiculty is increased when these lug positions are unknown to the operator.

This objection is removed by the present disclosure, of which the objects are to provide a door controller wherein holding the door open at determined positions does not require special care from the operator, to provide a wide range of closely spaced holding positions, to dispense with individual adjustment of the controller to each door and to provide for normal use of the door without interference from the controller.

The drawings show the improvements specically embodied.

Figure l is a fragmentary perspective of a door controlling installation.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the controller showing the door and door frame fragmentarily.

Fig. 3 is a central longitudinal section of the When the door is openedV door controller with a holding pawl. in engage,- ment.

Fig. 41 is a similar view showing. the pawl being forcedr from engagement.

Fig. 5-shows the pawl out of engagement.

Fig. 6 is a section taken onI line 6 6 ofv Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a plan diagram of.` the door to indicate both free and controller engaging a-rcs of movement of the door.

Fig. 8 has been added'.` to show a diierent arrangement of the door controller.

Fig. 9 is a partially sectioned elevation of Fig. 8.

The improved door controller, incommon with that of the patented construction above described, uses a pawl and cooperative pawl engaging elements and uses a similar means for placing the pawl in or out of engaging position, but to achieve the above listed objects replaces individual pawl engaging lugs with a pair 'ofi ment of nicety in causing engagement of the pawl are in the form of elongated plates each having several pawl engaging indentations. Each of these pawl engaging plates is long enough to permit the door to travel in a wide arc without drawing the pawl from coaction with the plate. Because of the close spacing of the sockets the door may be stopped oifhand at any place along either of these arcs and will be held in close approximation to the position desired.

Figure 1 illustrates the device applied to a door l which may be equipped with any door closing device. The door is hinged as shown at 2. A groove or track 3 is recessed in the top edge of the door. A pawl carrier 4 slides in the groove and is pivoted at 5 to a door arm 6. A pivot 'l around which the door arm swings is located on the door frame 8. A pawl 9 pivots at 9.I from a spring mounting IB on the carrier 4. `Pawl engaging racks are formed by a pair of spaced plates I2 and I3 fastened at the bottom of the groove having therein a row of pawl sockets Il. The pawl is pendant when not dragging on the plates.

Opening the door slides the pawl carrier toward the hinge side of the door. The pawl, normally vertical, is knocked to the right as viewed in Fig. 3 by striking plate I2. The pawl rides over sockets Il and at any place at which opening movement is stopped the pawl will be placed in engagement with the nearest socket under pressure from the closing device. To disengage the pawl the door is swung open until the pawl has traveled beyond the socket plate and is again free to depend vertically. When rocked to the left, Fig. 5, by plate I2, the pawl may ride thereon inetectively in either direction. Forced disengagement of the pawl by adding to the pressure from the closing device is provided for by the spring mounting of the pawl (Figs. 3, 4 and 5).

The sockets in plate I2 are for use when the door is to be slightly ajar and the sockets in plate I3 accommodate wider openings. When moving along arcs I2.I or I3.I (Fig. '7) the door is positioned for coaction with plates I2 or I3 respectively.

Under ordinary use, the door has no interference by the controller. A usual opening movement, brings the door within the zone of arc 3.I (Fig. 7) at which position the pawl is between the plates. As the doorl is closed the pawl is rocked into ineective position by striking plate I2.

The same principle may be dierently applied as illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9 by arcuately arranging two groups of sockets I4 on a table I5 cut at I6 to provide the equivalent of a pair of spaced plates I 'I and I8. Table I5 is set at the top of a door closing unit I9 attached to the door 20, and is concentric with a spindle 2 I. A jointed door operating arm 22 connects the spindle to the door frame 23 and a pawl 24 is pivoted at 24J to a spring mounting 25 on the door arm.

Operation of this arrangement is the same as that of the controller of Fig. 2. The pawl is drawn along the sockets for coaction therewith according to door movement. Normal use of the door is unobstructed by the controller, such use moving the pawl ineiectively to and from space I6.

I claim:

l. A door controller including a connection between a door and a door frame, the connection having pivoted attachment points to the door and door frame, a pivoted pendant pawl carried by the connection, a pair of plates spaced apart and positioned on the door below the pawl in the path thereof for coaction with the pawl, and a plurality of pawl sockets in each plate.

2. A door controller including a pivot for attachment to a door, a pair of plates on the door, the plates being spaced apart and having therein pawl sockets arcuately arranged around the pivot, a door arm connected at one end to said pivot and having a pivot connection at the other end for attachment to the door frame, a normally pendant pawl pivoted to the arm and positioned to be brought into coaction with the pawl sockets by movement of the arm.

3. A door controller including a pivot for attachment to a door, a pair of plates on the door, the plates being spaced apart and having therein pawl sockets arcuately arranged around the pivot, a door arm connected at one end to said pivot and having a pivot connection at the other end for attachment to the door frame, a spring mounting on the arm, a normally pendant pawl pivoted to the spring mounting and positioned to be brought into coaction with the pawl sockets by movement of the arm.

4. A door controller includinga track for attachment to a door, a pawl carrier slidable on the track and a normally pendant pawl pivoted on the carrier, an arm having a pivot connection at one end to a carrier and a pivot connection at the other end for attachment to the door frame, a pair of plates spaced apart and positioned below the pawl in the path thereof for coaction with the pawl, and a plurality of pawl sockets in each plate.

5. A door controller including a track for attachment to a door, a pawl carrier slidable on the track, a spring mounting on the carrier and a normally pendant pawl pivoted on the mounting, a door arm having a pivot connection at one end to the carrier and a pivot connection at the other end for attachment to the door frame, a pair of plates spaced apart and positioned below the pawl in the path thereof for coaction with the pawl, and a plurality of pawl sockets in each plate.

FORREST C. GARRISON. 

